February 15, 1906 marked the beginning of
banking in Ethiopia when the first Bank of Abyssinia was inaugurated
by Emperor Menelik II. It was a private bank whose shares were sold
in Addis Ababa, New York, Paris, London, and Vienna. One of the first
projects financed by the bank was the Franco-Ethiopian Railway which
reached Addis Ababa in 1917. In 1931, Emperor Haile Selassie
introduced reforms into the banking system and the Bank of Abyssinia
became the Bank of Ethiopia, a fully government-owned bank providing
central and commercial banking services. With the Italian invasion in
1935 came the demise of one of the earliest initiatives in African
banking.
